History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland ... Embellished with steel engravings, etc

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THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BISHOP AUCKLAND. Published byWJ Cummins, from aPhotograplityT.Bates,BisliQ,pAiicMan(l. HISTOEY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BISHOP AUCKLAND: INCLUDING A DESCRIPTION OF Mt f ami. ÆfttwJi 0s gft. QntiUuA, ST. ANN'S CHAPEL, THE BISHOPS PALACE, AND OTHER PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD ; BY MATTHEW RICHLEY. $mftttti*M with gittl (Bwvwtop, &t-$toAlit» of ito &r. " When a man sits down to write a history, though it be but the history of Jack Hickathrift or Tom Thumb, he knows no more than his heels what lets and confounded hindrances he is to meet with in his way, or what a dance he may be led by one excursion or another, before all is over He will, moreover, have various accounts to reconcile ; anecdotes to pick up ; inscriptions to make out ; stories to weave in ; traditions to sift ; personages to call upon ; panegyrics to paste up at this door ; pasquinades at that To sum up all ; there are archives at every stage to be looked into, and rolls, records, documents, and endless genealogies, which justice ever and anon calls him back to stay the reading of — in short, there is no end of it." — Sterne. §iisto»ir§Mwktettfl: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY W. J. CUMMINS, 53, MARKET PLACE. 1872. bishop : W. J. CUMMINS, PEIXTEK, MARKET PLACE.

TO JOHN PROUD, ESQUIRE, AS A SLIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE ASSISTANCE AND ENCOURAGEMENT RECEIVED FROM HIM IN COMPILING THE FOLLOWING PAGES, THEY AKE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF GRATITUDE AND ESTEEM, BY THE AUTHOR.

Preface

-*€*>- Some parents are so hoodwinked by their excessive fondness, that they see not the imperfections of their children, and mistake their folly and impertinences for sprightliness and wit ; but I, who, though seemingly the parent, am in truth only the step-father of Don Quixote, will not yield to this prevailing infirmity; nor will I — as others would do — beseech thee, kind reader, almost with tears in my eyes, to pardon or conceal the faults thou mayest discover in this brat of mine. — Cervantes. -OJCBe- ||ipHE Author of the following pages makes no pretension to the claim of being an original s0M Historian, and would have issued this Work to his fellow-townsmen without either preface or apology, had it not given him an opportunity of saying a few words respecting those from whom he has received much valuable information.

In the first place, he acknowledges with gratitude his obligations to Mr. Proud, to whom he is indebted for several useful hints, as well as the loan of many valuable books, documents, &c. To Dr. Thwaites, Mr. Joseph Duff, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Edgar, and Mr. Hallam, he is indebted for similar favours. To the Rev. H. A. Mitton his thanks are due for extracts from the Parish Registers of St. Andrew's Auckland, without which the Work would have been meagre and incomplete. To Mr. Carlton, of the Copyhold Office, Durham, he is also indebted for much information from the Manor Rolls ; and to Mr. Thomas Bowness his acknowledgments are due for the care and attention he has bestowed upon the work during its progress through the press. And now, just a word or two with respect to the Work itself. Its compilation has been accomplished amidst the cares and anxieties of an uncongenial business, and by a man whose only education was obtained at the Barrington School.

Little, therefore, in the shape of polished diction or grammatical accuracy can be expected ; and hence, to the critic and scholar, there will doubtless appear many crudities which, had the Author's educational acquirements been greater, might have been obviated or corrected. In attempting to write a history of his native town, the Author's object is not merely to give a collection of chronologically-arranged facts and incidents, but to show, to the best of his ability, the various changes that have taken place in Bishop Auckland, from the time when its inhabitants were in a state of villeinage, to the present day. Hitherto the Parish Registers have been almost the sole record of the Auckland of past days; and, whilst deploring such a state of things, the writer determined to lay hold of and record such scraps of its history as were left floating around him.

As a matter of course, the annals of a town like ours are meagre and scant in comparison with those having ancient corporate bodies, incorporated companies, or trade guilds, in whose archives are invariably found such rich mines of matter illustrative of the social and domestic life of our forefathers. But it is with towns and localities as it is with the human family;' — there are lessons to be learnt from the lives of even ordinary individuals. And so it is with Bishop Auckland. We find matters connected with its history worthy of record and thought, and their consideration cannot fail to convey many important and useful lessons, which is, really, the true mission and teaching of history.

PREFACE.

. How far the Author may have succeeded, with the materials at his command, in interesting his readers, he leaves them to judge. He is, however, vain enough to believe that he has, at least in some degree, supplied a want in collecting together, in one volume, information most of which was only to be found scattered here and there in all sorts of odd corners, whilst for the remainder the writer is gratified in being the humble instrument to rescue it from oblivion. There are several other places of historic importance in the neighbourhood which it was the Author's intention to have noticed had space allowed. But it is otherwise. They may, however, at some future time, should health and opportunity permit, form the subject of a separate publication, uniform with the present Work. " Go, little book, from this my solitude I cast thee on the waters, go thy ways ; And if, as I believe, thy vein be good, The world will find thee after many days."

THE AUTHOR. Bishop Auckland, November 29, 1872, - " Things once done and past, are not left for Invention, but the Judgement of after Ages, and Theft (without a Paradox) in Writers of Histories is plain dealing, and an Argument of Trueth. Only it is Ingenuity in the Historian and satisfaction to the Header, to confesse from whom he tooke his Storie upon trust." — Robert Hegg.

Chapter I. It

seems probable from the fact of Bishop Auckland having been originally called North Auckland, or, as it is termed in the old records, " North Aclet," that a town or village existed at this place prior to its becoming the residence of the Bishops of Durham ; but to what extent, or by whom inhabited, tradition and history are alike silent : though to that circumstance, its rise into anything like the shape and size of a town may be mainly attributed. At what particidar time, or by whom the territories of the Aucklands were originally given to the See of Durham, we have no exact record. Camden says (quoting an old book, of which he does not give the title) that " King Alfred and Guthrum, the Dane, whom he set over the Northumbrians, gave all the lands between the river Were and Tine to St. Cuthbert, and to those that should minister in his church, for ever, by which they might have sufficient to live upon, and not be forced to struggle with want and necessity."

At that time the whole County of Durham was styled by the old Monkish writers " The land and patrimony of St. Cuthbert ;" and it seems most likely, if we may judge from its subsequent history, that the lands upon which Auckland now stands formed a part of that grant. About the year 1000, those lands, along with Binchester, Escomb, Newton, &c, with many other Episcopal possessions, were conceded for a time by Bishop Aldhune (who, in strictness of speech, was the first Bishop of Durham) to the Earl of Northumberland, to enable him to wage war against the Scots, and they were for some time afterwards withheld from the See. We next hear of them about the year 1020, as constituting a portion of the extensive territorial gifts conferred once more upon the See of Durham by King Canute the Dane, and from that time the whole of the lands of the modern Aucklands have belonged to the Bishops of Durham or their grantees ; and the probability is that it became the site of one of their numerous residences at its restoration to the See at the above-named period, Eaclmund then being Bishop, and the second who filled the See ; Aldhune, as aheady stated, being the first, the seat of the episcopacy having been removed from Chester-le-Street to Durham under his auspices.

In 1085, Bishop William de Carileph confirmed to his convent of Durham the Church of Tynemouth, and amongst the witnesses upon that solemn occasion there occurs the name and place of residence of one " Ulthred the priest of Alcleat," which proves, at least, the existence of some church or rebgious foundation at or near Auckland ; and again, at a later period, in a charter of William de Merley, Lord of Morpeth, dated 1129, we have as one of the witnesses, "Meldred de Aclet." Its chapel is also mentioned in a judicial proceeding in 1271, and many other incidental notices, such as the dates of charters and other documents, during what may be called the dark period of its history, prove it to have been a favourite residence of the See, even in those early times. Raine, the historian of Auckland Castle, seems to think that the Bishops of Durham have had a residence here from a period not much, if at all, posterior to the Norman Conquest ; and further states that it was the opinion of the late General Hodgson —a distinguished native of Bishop Auckland, who had frequently examined the peninsular upon which the Castle stands, with a military eye, and who, from long experience, was entitled to give an opinion on such a abject—that it had formerly been a fortified outpost, subsidiary to the great Roman Camp at Binchester, on the opposite hill ; and that the ruins of the fort had furnished materials for the construction of the Bishop's first mansion.'" The appellation first given to this mansion seems to have been that of " Hall."

It afterwards became that of " Manor House," and during the latter part of the fourteenth century, Bishop Sherwood calls it his " Manor House or Castle." A few words here in explanation of the power and position of the Bishops of Durham in those early times, may be necessary by way of illustrating much of our subsequent history. The Bishops in those days Avere called Counts Palatine,! a title said to have been given them by Wilham the Conqueror, and which conferred upon them as much power in the bishopric as the King exercised out of it. By it they had power to levy taxes, make truces with the Scots, and raise defensible men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, within the bishopric. They could call a parliament, and create barons to sit in it, of whom the Prior of Durham, Hilton of Hilton, Conyers of Sockburn, Bulmer of Brancepeth, and Hansard of Evenwood, are said to have formed some of the earliest.

There is still amongst the old rolls of Durham an account of the parliaments, and the subsidies granted by them, with several acts of their council. Although the ecclesiastical canons forbid any clergyman to be present when judgment of blood was given, the Bishops of Durham could sit in their purple robes in giving judgment of death. They had a mint, and power to com money. The courts, which in other parts of England were held in the King's name, were held in the Bishop's, at which time he could make justices of assize, of oyer and terminer, and of the peace ; and all writs went out in his name. He had his courts of chancery and common pleas, and copyhold or halmote court held by his stewards. Most of the lands in the Palatine belonged to him, as Lord paramount " in capite," and by several other tenures, as the lands in other parts were held by the King.

AU the moors and wastes in the county, to which no other person could make a title, belonged to him, and could not be enclosed without a grant from him, neither could freehold lands be alienated without his leave; and, if any were, they were obliged, upon discovery, to sue him for his patent and pardon, which he could grant for all intrusions, trespasses, &c. He had villans and bondsmen whom he manumitted when he pleased, and made them free. The goods and chattels of such as committed treason were forfeited to the Bishop, as were also those of such as were convicted of outlawries and felonies. He gave license to build chapels, found charities and hospitals, made boroughs and incorporations, and granted markets and fairs, but, strange to say, we have no record which prelate conferred that privilege upon the town of Bishop Auckland.

He also appointed clerks of the markets in all towns, boroughs, and cities within the Palatinate. He also created several great officers under him, viz., a chancellor, constable of Durham Castle, chamberlain, secretary, steward, treasurer, comptroller of his household, prothonotaries, clerks of his chancery, supervisors of his Lordship's castles, of which he had many, viz. , at Durham, Middleham, and Stockton ; Craike and Norham in Northumberland ; and Manor Houses at Auckland, Evenwood, Darlington, * In 1757, at the building of a bridge in the Park over the Gaunless, a Roman urn of greyish clay was discovered filled with earth and human bones, which, in some degree, confirms the above opinion- 's The term "Palatinate" has its root in a Latin word, "Palatium," a palace. In the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire it frequently happened that officers attached to the Palace and favourites of the Emperor were delegated to govern distant and turbulent provinces of the decaying empire.

Many of these Satraps themselves revolted, and paid only a nominal obedience to the Emperors. Hence the Lord of a province that was virtually ndependent, and the chief of which only paid a sort of ceremonious feudal homage to the head of the Empire, became styled a " Prince," or " Count Palatine." &c, with numerous other halls of less note and name. He had also his park-rangers and pale keepers, who kept courts in his Manors, and determined all matters relating to his forests, parks, and woods. He was Lord- Admiral of the seas and waters within the county Palatine, and had courts of admiralty, judges, officers of beaconage and anchorage, and commissioners to regulate waters and passages of waters. The offices were generally held by persons of good quality, who held lands for their services, which were at first absolutely at the will of the giver, but were afterwards made hereditary, and constituted, no doubt, the foundation of many of the duchies, earldoms, and baronies of many of our north country nobles and landed gentry.

The greater part of the above privileges were taken from the Bishops by statute, during the reign of Henry VIII., or became obsolete. Such were, however, the powers and privileges conferred upon them by the feudal system introduced by Wilham the Conqueror into this country in the olden times. With respect to the origin and derivation of the word Auckland there seems to be a considerable amount of obscurity and difference of opinion. Camden says that Auckland and Aycliff are of a kindred origin, and derive their names from the oaks, which, in times of old, flourished in their vicinity. But this conjecture, at least with respect to Auckland, seems rather more poetical than true ; and the old documents above referred to, as well as many others which will be noticed hereafter, compels the etymologist to look elsewhere for the derivation of that word.

In the Boldon Buke, compiled 1183, it is written "Aclet," and the district, including the three Aucklands, are called " Acletshire." Soon after this the letters "u" and "n" are introduced into the word, and it is written " Auclent." About 1542, Leland wrote it " Akelande ;" and shortly after that time it was sometimes called " Market Akelande," and at length became, as now written, Bishop Auckland. But, from conjecture and casual notices in old documents, we proceed to more definite and authentic records. The Boldon Buke above referred to (so called from the circumstance of Boldon being the first place mentioned in it), is a general survey, which Bishop Pudsey caused to be made, of all the ancient demesne lands and possessions of his bishopric in the form and manner of the Domesday Book. This survey is recorded in a small folio book consisting of twenty-four pages, written in a very bad hand, and which is still preserved in the archives at Durham, though Raine says it is only a transcript, the original having been lost.

It contains inquisitions and verdicts of all the several tenures of lands, services, and customs, and the tenants' names of every degree, how much each held at that time, and what rents were paid for the same. It has been published by the Surtees' Society, both in the original Latin and in a translated form, edited by the Rev. William Green well, M.A., Fellow of the University College of Durham, from which the following extract relating to Bishop Auckland is taken : — In North Aukland are 22 villans, of whom each one holds one oxgang, and renders 2 chalders of oat malt, and one weight of scatmalt, and one weight of meal, and one weight of oats, and 8d. of averpeimies, and 19d. of cornage, and one hen and ten eggs, and three cartloads of wodelades if they shall carry them to Aukland, and if to Durham two cartloads and a half, and they work from the feast of St. Peter ad Vincida to the feast of St. Martin two days in the week, and from the feast of St. Martin to the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula one day in the week ; and, moreover, each makes four precations in autumn with all the house, except the housewife, and every one of the ploughs of the town ploughs and harrows two acres and a half over and above their work.

The whole town renders one cow in milk. The bailiff has one oxgang for his service. Morman and Eoger hold one toft and one croft, and render 4s., and make four precations. Simon the miller holds one croft and one toft, and renders and works as Morman and Eoger. The monk cook holds for his service, at the will of the Bishop, one acre and a half, which William Scot and Alstan and William JBoie held ; and within the Park and without 19 acres and a half of improvable land, and 10 acres of land not improvable. Umfrid the smith holds one oxgang for his service. Eobert the pounder holds 1 2 acres and has thraves as the rest, and renders 80 hens and 500 eggs. The toll of beer renders 8s. The mills of Auklandshire 24 marcs. Pollard holds 10 acres and a half. Luce Makerell holds one house near the orchard of the Lord Bishop, and renders at the feast of St. Cuthbert half a pound of cummin.

Gatull the smith holds 1 6 acres for one pound of pepper, and his heirs for 2s. or two pigs. The rent of the whole borough of Auckland, together with the profits of a borough court, produced about twenty-six pounds ; a fulling mill, which was situate in the Park, forty shillings ; the Park, which contained at that time about fifty acres of meadow land, eight pounds, makinoin all about forty pounds, which the whole borough of Auckland then produced to the See of Durham, exclusive of the services rendered by the villans and bondsmen. We learn from the same source, also, that the borough of Auckland contained in all about five hundred acres of arable land, and the probability is that the whole of the rest of the neighbourhood, both up and down the valley of the Wear, was one great forest ; whilst the more distant hills were clothed, as the western moors are now-a-days, with blooming heather ; as many of them still bear that appellation, viz., Etherley Moor, Byers Green Moor, Spennymoor, &c. The word " Averpenny," which frequently occurs in the Boldon Buke, is supposed to be money paid by the tenant on commutation of the service of performing any work for his Lord by horse or ox, or by carriage with either.

Scatmalt, meal or malt of the measure of the Exchequer. Wodelade, a load of wood for fuel. Greenwell, in the appendix to the Boldon Buke, says : — " The villan formed that large class, including, under this general name, cotmen, bond-tenants, and farmers, the members of which, though not slaves, and holding under the Lord some small portion of land, had neither a permanent interest in the land, nor could be called freemen. They have been divided into villans regardant — those attached to the land ; and villans in gross those attached to the Lord's person, and transferable by him to another. No real distinction, however, seems to have existed, and this division probably originated from confounding the villan with the serf, who was a mere personal slave, and had no interest in the land. The villan could not leave his Lord's estate, nor, indeed, give up the land he held under him ; he was a servant for life, receiving as wages enough of land to support himself and family.

If he left his Lord he could be recovered as astray, unless he had lived meanwhile for a year and a day in a privileged town or borough, in which case he obtained his freedom. He could accumulate no property, everything he possessed being his Lord's. His services consisted in servile work done by himself and his household on the Lord's demesne land, such as ploughing, harrowing, mowino-, and reaping, carting dung, and all other agricultural operations. These could be changed at any time by the Lord, though they naturally had a tendency to become of a permanent and settled character, and in the end became quite regular and stated in quantity and time. " The villan could not marry his daughter without the Lord's leave, and in many cases was obliged to pay a certain sum for this liberty; this payment was called 'raerchet.'* All the children of villans inherited their father's condition, and were, like him, villans too.

If a free man married a female villan, or neife, as she was called, the children were free ; but if a free woman married a villan the children were villans, in this, contrary to the maxim of the civil law, that partus sequitur ventrem. No bastard could, however, be bom a villan, for the law held that being felius nulliits, and as such unable to have any inheritance, he should at all events gain his natural freedom by it. Holding by villenage tenure did not always imply that the holder was a villan : a freeman might hold land in villenage, in which case he rendered the services due upon the land, but remained personally free. The villan could acquire no property in goods or land, for, being himself the property of the Lord, all that he acquired was the Lord's * But being allowed to hold land— himself and his children— for many years without interruption the common law gave him the title to hold his lands on rendering the accustomed services or on payment of the money for which those services had been commuted ; and the villan, in course of on the first night of her marriage, from being defloured bv hi™ K?' .™ade,by the vassal to his Lord to preserve his daughter, notion, and hive pointed out the origin and toe meaning Ii Zte™ A , Æ ?' *T_7f ' W f *• S . o™^ absurdity of this his viDan's services, together with that of his hoSeho d if » ,fi]Æ J ■ /I a certain portion of the year the right to therefore, a remuneration in money, and tha twaTcaUed '^MercheT » Crtn" V "J*?6*1 l0SS t0 *¥ Lord' and he had> Merg and Sceat, signifying daughter and payment Greenwell thinks the word is a compound of the two words, time, became the copyholder of latter days.

The quantity of land they held varied from sixteen to thirty-five acres, with a house attached. Their services were onerous, about half the year being given to working for the Bishop on his demesne land. " The house of each villan, cottar, or farmer, was situated in a toft, with one or more crofts adjoining, the houses being in this way separated from each other. Attached to the village, with its enclosed parcels of ground, was the common field, where each tenant held his own portion of acres of arable land under the name of oxgangs, and beyond that was the pasture where the cattle fed in common, under the charge of the village herd ; in some cases there was also the Lord's waste or forest, in which his tenants had various rights of pasturage, swine-feeding, and of cutting turf and firewood.

In the midst of moorland, or extensive woods, there was every here and there the open pasture, and cultivated field of each village, without hedge or any division save a strip of grass, which bordered each tenant's holding ; and by the side of the 'stream, or where the best land lay, snugly ensconced each in their little fields with their hedge-row trees, rose the cottages of the humble tillers of the soil, clustering round, and sheltered by the hall of their Lord." But the Boldon Buke (says Raine) affords information of a more interesting kind in illustration of the manners and amusements of those ancient times. The early Bishops of Durham were mighty hunters ; and in it we have a minute specification of the machinery (if it may be so termed), by which their sports were maintained and conducted from year to year.

At home there was the Park at Auckland, of a much greater extent than at present, as it then included Old Park and, in addition, there were the more distant Parks of Wolsingham and Bedburn, and (up to the end of the thirteenth century) the Park of Evenwood. In each of these there were, for home amusement, deer in abundance, with more ignoble game ; there were also keepers in each place, with their duties defined. The great field, however, where the more extensive sports took place was the forest of Weardale, extending westward from Eastgate, (its name indicating a boundary mark) to the source of the river, in what is still called the Forest Quarter of the parish ; where, in addition to the deer, there were apiaries with their overseers, and aviaries of hawks. Persons are mentioned who held lands by the service of protecting the deer yearly for forty days in the fawning season, and for the same length of time during the rut.

Some, instead of rent, furnished greyhounds, of which thirty are enumerated, besides other dogs, not more minutely described. Other tenants are named who were liable to be called upon for horses ; others for ropes to surround the deer, after the fashion of Scotland. At Wolsingham three turners in wood contributed three thousand one hundred trenchers, or wooden platters yearly for the use of the Bishop and his Green-wood men. But the most curious entry is one which immediately connects the Bishop with this animated scene, and which proves that the duties of religion were not forgotten amid the pleasures of the chase.""" Raine gives the following translation of it : — All the villani of Alcletshire, to wit, of North Aclet, Escumbe, and Newton (66 in number), find for the great hunt of the Bishop, for every bovate of land in their tenure, one cord, and they make a hall for the Bishop in the Forest of the length of 60 feet, and the breadth of 16 feet from post to post, with a butlery and buttery hatch, a chamber and other conveniences.

They construct also a chapel of the length of 40 feet, and the breadth of 15 feet ; and they have of charity 2s. They make their part of the hedge around the lodges, and they have upon the Bishop's departure a tun of ale, or half a tun, if so much shall remain. Moreover, all the villani and farmers go to the Koe-hunt at the summons of the Bishop. Moreover, all the villanis construct for the great hunt a kitchen and a larder, and a dog-kennel ; they find bedding in the hall, the chapel, and the chamber ; and they carry the whole of the Bishop's provisions from Wolsingham to the lodges. There was, doubtless (says the same author), much of pleasurable excitement in this great * On March 8th, 1831, a large pair of horns attached to a part of a skull, and supposed to belong to a red deer, were found in a gravel bed of the Wear, about a quarter of a mile west of the town, each horn measuring above four feet from the root to the tip ; and they were about 40 inches apart at the widest point of the curve.

This was, no doubt, the remains of some denizen of the Forests of Weardale, which had come to an untimely end either by the chase or some other means, near the river side, and had been washed down by a flood, and found a grave in this place. annual gathering, and, even now, in retrospection, the animated scene may have its charms. At its head the mitred Earl of the Palatinate in all his state, surrounded by his Lords and Commons, and attended by hundreds of his retainers in every grade of life, enlivened by the pleasure of the chase, and cheered by the echoes of the hounds and horns, reverberating from hill to hill and rock to rock in the valley of the Wear. It would most certainly be a curious sight to see such a cavalcade, emerging from the western extremity of the town of Auckland, decked out in all the paraphernalia of the picturesque and many coloured costumes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.